# furunculus
## Latin
### Etymology

From fūr (“a thief”) +‎ -unculus (diminutive nominal suffix). The use of the ending -unculus, which more often appeared in diminutives of n-stem nouns, may be influenced by analogy with the word latrunculus (“highwayman, robber”), a diminutive with a similar meaning. Alternatively (particularly in the sense "ferret"), could be from fūrō +‎ -culus, i.e. a diminutive formed on an n-stem base fūrō, an alternative form of fūr.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /fuːˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuːˈrʊŋkʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /fuˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuˈruŋkulus]

### Noun

fūrunculus m (genitive fūrunculī); second declension
* (literally) pilferer (petty thief)
* (transferred sense)
** (pathology) pointed burning sore on the human body; boil, furuncle
** (botany) germ or knob on a vine, so called from its shape
** (zoology) refers to some mustelid animal (either a stoat or a ferret)
    Synonyms: fūrō, ictis, viverra, furectus, furettus

#### Inflection

Second-declension noun.

#### Descendants

All having the sense of 'sore, boil, abscess'.
* Italo-Romance:
** Central Italian: frongolo, frungolo
** Neapolitan: frungolo
    Tarantino: frunchiu
* North Italian:
** Friulian: faroncli, farungli
** >? Lombard: ferunqui
** Piedmontese: frungi
** Venetan: frungolo
* Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal:
*** Franco-Provençal: furonclo, furoncllo, feusonclle, fosonclo, fruncle, furuncle
** Oïl:
*** Bourbonnais-Berrichon: frongle, fronc, fronque, froncle
*** Bourguignon: fronllhe, fairongh', feuronghi', frongle, froinlie
*** Franc-Comtois: fenonche
*** Lorrain: frombe
*** Middle French: feroncle, froncle
**** French: furoncle (latinized)
*** Norman: froncle, flon
*** Poitevin-Saintongeais: fronclle
* Occitano-Romance:
** Gascon: horoncle, roncle
    Pyrenean: ronglo, rongo, ronco
** Occitan: foroncle, foroncle
* Ibero-Romance:
** Old Galician-Portuguese: foruncho
*** Galician: furuncho, faruncho, feruncho, foroncho, foruncho
*** Portuguese: fruncho
* Vulgar Latin:
** *fluruncus (see there for further descendants)
** *furuncellus (diminutive)
*** Aromanian: furuntsel, furnitsel
*** Romanian: furnicel
* Borrowings:
** → English: furuncle
** → German: Furunkel
** → Italian: foruncolo
*** → Emilian: furuncal
*** → Lombard: huroncul
*** → Romagnol: furuncual
** → Polish: furunkuł
** → Portuguese: furúnculo
** → Romanian: furuncul
** → Russian: фурункул (furunkul)
** → Spanish: furúnculo, forúnculo
* Unsorted:
** Portuguese: frunco

### References

* AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 685: “il foruncolo” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
* ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1574: “furoncle” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fŭrŭnculus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 3: D–F, page 912
* ↑ Ludwig Ramshorn. 1860. Dictionary of Latin Synonymes, for the Use of Schools and Private Students. Page 14

### Further reading

* “furunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “furunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* furunculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.